A French woman has been awarded a publicly-funded disability grant because she is allergic to radiowaves from mobile devices. However, the ruling stopped short of formally recognizing electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) as an illness.

The lady says she is forced to live in a remote barn with no electricity because she suffers adverse effects when exposed to electromagnetic waves. A court decided she is eligible for a grant of €800 (approximately $900) a month for the next three years.

Although it is labelled a disability grant, the money is not intended to cover medical costs or compensate for illness. Instead it’s meant to replace lost income because the court said the condition has caused “substantial and lasting restrictions on access to employment.”

Evidence that wireless devices and transmissions cause medical problems is thin on the ground to say the least. The World Health Organization does recognise that EHS exists as a condition, with symptoms including headache, palpitations and the unfortunate combination of fatigue and insomnia. However, it says there’s no scientific basis on which to say electromagnetic exposure is the cause.

The condition came to widespread attention in the US after reports of an influx of people claiming to suffer from EHS moved to the small West Virginia town of Green Bank, to the annoyance of some locals. A sector of this town is part of a “National Radio Quiet Zone” where all private wireless use is banned to avoid interfering with an enormous government-owned radio telescope.